Onus is on young graduates to maintain momentum in India’s progress and growth: Niti Aayog Vice Chairman

At Anna Univ. convocation, NITI Aayog VC urges grads to create new systems, solve local/global problems & bring positive change. TN Governor awards degrees to 65 gold medalists & 1.25 lakh grads. Anna Univ. accredited A++, provided skill edu. to 3 lakh & incubated 100+ startups.

What goes on in the minds of young graduates is a vital part of India’s take-off and trajectory, and the country looks forward to young men and women creating new systems, solving local and global problems, and bringing about positive changes to society, said Suman Bery, vice chairman, NITI Aayog, Government of India.

Mr. Bery was addressing the 43rd annual convocation of Anna University, in Chennai, on Tuesday.

Speaking about the Prime Minister’s collective goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047 for everyone, Mr. Bery said that there were many reasons to believe that this would be India’s take-off moment. “India has made tremendous progress in areas such as resilience of institutions, provisions of basic services, investment in infrastructure and other technological advancements. The onus is on us, especially those graduating today, to maintain [the] momentum over the next 25 years, leading up to the 100th year of India’s independence,” he said.

Mr. Bery also said that an engineering perspective can bring a solutions-focussed attitude that will ensure that challenges are addressed through a practical, realistic, and pragmatic mindset.

Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi awarded the degrees to the graduates. As many as 65 graduates received gold medals and 1,485 students received their Ph.Ds. A total of 1.25 lakh candidates graduated from across streams and undergraduate, postgraduate, M.phil, M.S. and Ph.D programmes.

R. Velraj, vice chancellor, Anna University said that the institution was recently accredited by NAAC with the A++ grading in the third cycle. “Under the [Tamil Nadu government’s] Naan Mudhalvan scheme, skill education was provided to around 3 lakh students of the university. Two Tamil courses on heritage and technology, and Tamils and technology were introduced into the engineering curriculum for the first time,” he said.

The University has been granted with 21 parents during the 2022-23 academic year, and has signed an agreement with SIPCOT to provide technical support towards the establishment of an industrial park in bio-medical instrumentation. “The Atal incubation centre, established in 2020, has nurtured over 100 startups of which 38 deep tech startups have been identified and incubated,” Prof Velraj said.